Westbrook returns, but will it be enough for OKC?

Oklahoma City’s All-Star point guard had never missed a game dating back to high school before suffering a torn meniscus in last year’s playoffs. Expected to sit for up to six more weeks of the new season, Westbrook missed a grand total of two games before returning last night against Phoenix.

As you’d expect, he was a bit out of tune, missing 11 of 16 attempts with four turnovers. But there’s no rust for raw athletic ability. At least, not if you’re Westbrook, who was every bit the explosive force his opponents have come to dread. He soared for layups. He drew a game-high 14 free throws. He penetrated and spoon fed teammates for dunks.

In other words, Westbrook looked pretty much exactly like himself, which could be bad news for the other Western Conference contenders, including the Spurs, who had hoped to capitalize on his absence.

But as good — no, as great as Westbrook is, will his return be enough to make up for the erosion of talent they’ve suffered with the trade of James Harden and Kevin Martin’s defection via free agency?

No matter what Bill Simmons might think, it’s still too early to completely judge the Harden deal. But this much is indisputable: Breaking up one of the most dynamic and talented young cores in history for financial reasons — only months after playing for the championship, no less — was a brutally bitter pill for the Thunder to swallow.

Harden is now averaging 26 points per game in Houston. While he never would have reached that output playing alongside Westbrook and Kevin Durant, his ability to run the pick-and-roll, draw fouls and shoot from range formed a conduit between the two cornerstones that will be virtually impossible to duplicate.

Even without him, however, the Thunder still thrived.

Martin, the best piece they got back from the Rockets, was solid, averaging 14 points on a typically high true shooting percentage. By the end of the season, they were hitting on all cylinders with the NBA’s highest margin of victory since the 2007-08 Celtics and the No. 1 offensive rating.

Then Westbrook got hurt, Oklahoma City crashed out in the second round, Martin signed with Minnesota, and the Thunder are forced to use Reggie Jackson and Jeremy Lamb to fill the role once held by future and former All-Stars. We’ll need at least another month or two, if not the entire season, to accurately judge how the youngsters do.

But this is what we know the Thunder are missing:

With Harden on the court in 2012-13, plus 12.9 offensive rating (112.2 points per 100 possessions);

With Martin on the court in 2013-14, plus 5.5 offensive rating (112.7).

It goes without saying that Westbrook’s return will help tremendously. Per Ball Don’t Lie’s Dan Devine, the Thunder went from being outscored by an average of 5.7 points per 100 possessions over their first two games to plus 6.7 per 100 during his 33 minutes.

But even then the Thunder couldn’t secure the victory over Phoenix, a rebuilding team expected to miss the postseason, until the final minute. While that’s not enough to draw any concrete conclusions, it seems reasonable to deduce that their margin for error is that much smaller without Harden/Martin.

And that’s never a good thing in the unforgiving arena that is the Western Conference.